Monday, June 06, 2005

Whew...finally got that pesky new book under control. One more readthrough, and BLACKOUT goes to my editor. This book was one of the hardest to write, probably because my heroine had no idea who she was. Which meant I had no idea who she was.

Okay, well, I had a few ideas. I mean, my memory wasn't wiped out the way hers was. But the thing is, I usually "discover" my characters as I write. And with this chick, well...there wasn't a whole lot to discover.

I mean there was...but mostly about what she'd done, not who she was.

Well, that's not quite true either, because...well, you do learn little things about her. Like her love of books. Especially children's book. Her ability to fight with a knife. The fact that she doesn't cook.

Well, hell, I don't know why BLACKOUT was so hard to write. Maybe books are like children. Some come out easy and sleep through the night, some are real headbangers.

This was a headbanger.

On the easygoing front, my anthology, HOT PURSUIT, will be out in January. My piece is called NECESSARY BETRAYALS, and I enjoyed writing that. It's about a mobster's daughter whose sister is kidnapped. She's forced to rely on the one person she'd rather die than have to lean on--her ex-lover, the undercover cop who put her father in jail.

It was fun to write about two people with so much history.

I mean, how can you exist without a past?

See, that was the problem with BLACKOUT. No past. No history.

Until, of course, little by little, the past uncovers itself.

Too bad it's not pretty.

I mean what happens when the desperate search to find yourself leads you to wish you'd never started?